The first thing that you need to understand is that no one knows why some schools select some students over others. The colleges and universities are extremely competitive and will look at your GPA, your test scores, your rigor of your coursework, your rank, and how you have taken advantage of what your school community provides. Also, some schools look at what you do outside of the school community.
First question: what does your counselor say about where the graduates of your school have attended? Have you met with counseling staff to discuss possible schools?
Are you sure about your budget for college? Some of these schools are $90k per year. Is this what your parents are expecting to pay? You cannot rely on scholarships or loans to pay the bill. These are disappearing.
Don’t knock the state schools. You’re lucky that you live in a state that has some great choices. Because of the strength of California schools, students from all over the state and the world (yes WORLD) want to get into the schools you’ve listed.
There are a limited amount of seats at the desired schools, so they are picky and expect high test scores, exceptional grades, and tough classes. The UCs get over 100k in yearly applications from students with stellar, perfect records. Each university is different in price, size, location, climate, and community.
Why did you pick those schools? Each of those is very tough to get into.
University of Portland is Out of State (OOS) in Oregon. It is a public university funded by their state taxpayers. Which means that as a California resident you would pay non resident fees. I have rarely heard of California students having to go to Oregon, because they couldn’t go to a local university.
Additionally, most universities require two years of coursework, at a Community College, before transferring to a university.
You are smart to ask questions now, because you need to learn about what is expected in order to be admitted into some of these schools: